Appert wants consistent aggression

TROY >> Seth Appert isn’t happy with the play of his Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hockey team’s play over the past month. He isn’t thrilled with the team’s records — 2-3-2 in the ECAC Hockey conference, 7-5-1 overall — but they team’s lack of consistency is what really disturbs him.

The team’s physical, tenacious style which it needs to employ to be successful, has wavered noticeably of late.

So, after Wednesday morning’s practice, Appert described the team’s past eight practice sessions (the Engineers were idle from game action last weekend) as “fairly miserable around here the past couple of weeks, as it should be when you lose. Losing is no fun and not playing as well as we think we should be (is worse) isn’t fun and practice shouldn’t be fun when you’re playing that way.

“So, it’s been a little testy, a little ornery and hopefully that means that we’re getting closer to being prepared to play the way we need to play on Friday night.”

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On Friday night (7), the Engineers return to ECACH play, hosting the league’s best team, 5th-ranked Quinnipiac (6-1-1, 13-2-2), then on Saturday (4 p.m.), RPI hosts the only ECACH team that’s beaten Q’pac this season — Princeton (2-6-0, 3-10-0). And the Tigers are unbeaten (4-0-1) in their past five games at Houston Field House.

Appert and the Engineers are focusing on the caliber of their own play, however, not the quality of their opponent or the lack of success in recent seasons against those opponents.

“We pride ourselves on being a hard, physical, relentless, competitive team and we haven’t done that on a consistently enough,” Appert said. “There have been too many individuals, or nights, or shifts, or periods, or whatever it is where we’re not as hard to play against as we need to be.”

“We’re at our best when we’re a mean, physical, ornery, aggressive hockey team,” Appert said. “That’s when we’re at our best. What we did in the first nine games of the year is that we matched that with incredible discipline. We were the second-least penalized team in the country. And then that’s eluded us a little bit. It’s the funny, though; I think it’s because we haven’t competed hard enough. What happens is you get frustrated and you take a frustration penalty, or now you’re frustrated and you’re going really hit a guy and it ends up being a boarding or a cross-check.”

Aggressive, physical play hasn’t been the Engineers’ problem. The wavering of it has been.

“We have a higher competitive spirit (among) our team and we have fewer penalties. It’s funny how that works,” Appert said. “It’s not our physical play that’s getting us in trouble.

“But we’ve got to get back to that, as a team,” he said. “That smothering; we’re at our best when we smother teams as a group of five. Hard on the forecheck, forwards hunting pucks, taking away (the opposition’s) time and space, winning puck battles, defensemen with good gaps (and) being physical in the corners and opponents feeling like they don’t have enough time and space against us. We haven’t been good enough at that. I think it’s wavered all year. It’s hard to play (without that). It’s hard to win.”

Appert added that the aggressive, relentless, physical style is the Engineers’ “avenue to being a championship-contending, national tournament team.”

Injuries

Freshman winger Jake Wood joins freshman right winger Jimmy DeVito on the injured list. He had knee surgery and will be out four-six weeks. DeVito could be back a bit sooner.

Sophomore center-winger Mark Miller is a bit banged up but expects to play this weekend.

Three top Princeton forwards, center Andrew Calof, right winger Tyler Maugeri and center Aaron Kessleman have all missed the past three-four games for the Tigers. Their status for tonight’s game at Union and Saturday at RPI isn’t clear.

High plusses

The Engineers may have won only three of their past nine games (3-4-2) but their plus-minus rating remain quite good. Rensselaer has outscored the opposition, 30-26 over those nine games and 43-27 overall while not shorthanded and all but two players have plus ratings or even.

Sophomore defenseman Chris Bradley leads the team with a +8 and senior assistant captain Brock Higgs is at +7. Sophomore left winger Mike Zalewski and junior defensemen Luke Curadi and Curtis Leonard are all at +5.

Forwards Ryan Haggerty, who leads the nation in goals (15) and captain Matt Tinordi are both +4, as is freshman defenseman Parker Reno.

All large group with +3 rankings includes defenseman Phil Hampton and forwards Johnny Rogic, Zach Schroeder, Mark McGowan and Matt Neal.

Quinnipiac, which has outscored its opponents in equal-strength situations, 40-21, has some gaudy plus-minus figures, led by star center Connor Jones’ +15. His right winger and brother Kellen Jones is +12 and their impressive freshman linemate Sam Anas (12 goals-12 assists-24 points) is a +10. So are Jordan Samuels-Thomas and defensemen Danny Federico and Connor Clifton. Five other Bobcats are between +9 and +4.

No go for Robinson

Quinnipiac senior winger Brooks Robinson (0-1-1), a career alternate, will be out of action Friday night.

ECAC Hockey has assessed a one-game suspension to Robinson for a hit late in the Bobcats’ 6-1 victory over Massachusetts on Nov. 30. Robinson was whistled for a major checking from behind penalty and game misconduct penalty with 44 seconds remaining in the game.